One set, Vladek's Dark Fortress , so inhabited his thoughts last fall that for weeks he announced somberly each morning at breakfast that he had ``dreamed about the fortress again last night."
So when we decided this year that we would visit friends and relatives on the West Coast over school vacation, there was no doubt that our itinerary would include a visit to Legoland California, a 128-acre theme park devoted to all things Lego, in Carlsbad, on the Pacific coast 30 miles north of San Diego.
It may seem astonishing that a toy could have so great a grip on children's imaginations as to drive a big theme park, but the Lego Group's clever linking of its products with various cultural crazes -- Harry Potter, Batman, Star Wars, and Spider-Man , to name a few -- gives the toys a narrative history that, particularly for boys, seems irresistible.
California's Legoland (there are three others, in Denmark, where the blocks were born, Britain, and Germany) is a 3-D version of the company's catalog, and will delight any devotee of the plastic bricks. Many of its attractions are traditional offerings -- roller coasters and bumper cars, for example -- dressed up in Lego clothing. So even children, and their adult companions, without the slightest interest in Legos will have a good time.
Entering the park, visitors are greeted by life-size mechanical elephants shooting water out of their Lego trunks. These are among the 15,000 or so intricate models sprinkled throughout Legoland that were built at a workshop that is itself one of the park's exhibits.
